That’s Not Value, Nauseated Woman Says

BROOKLYN (CN) – A Popeye’s patron says she spit out a “funny” tasting “chicken value meal” and discovered that the “purple and brown” meat with a “mustardy” flavor came from a rat. After her first bite, Michellee Alfonso says, she exclaimed, “Eew! That taste funny.” She says she peeled the skin to examine the meat and “much to her horror, she sees a tail attached to the hind part of a rat.”

“At the sight of this rat tail, Ms. Alfonso becomes nauseous and ill,” according to the complaint in Kings County Court. Alfonso says that when she told the employees that “she got something other than what she wanted,” they were “rude, standoffish and unprofessional.” She claims says they did not report the incident or offer medical attention, but simply offered her a refund. So Alfonso says she called 311 to file an incident claim with New York City, and was told “that she would receive a call in 37 days and that she is not to throw away the chicken,” that is, the rat. After a follow-up call, she says she was assured that the Department of Health would investigate. The experience “destroyed her confidence in eating chicken” and “caused her to become fearful and disgusted at the sight of chicken,” she says. Popeye’s “is misleading the community as to what it is they are serving at their food service establishment,” the complaint states. “Ms. Alfonso was misled to believe she was ordering chicken when in fact Popeye’s is selling rats.” She demands $150,000 in damages for negligence and vicarious liability. She says she was served the rat at the restaurant chain’s Fulton Street outlet in Brooklyn. She is represented by René Myatt.